New
by Zoe Standing Bare
Summary: Peter wasn’t entirely sure why he was calling. He did. He wanted to see the baby. Jason’s baby. But how did he say that." Peter gets in contact with Ivy after Jason's death. One-shot.


Author's Note: So this was my first stab at _bare_ fanfiction…I haven't written fanfiction at all in ages, so this was an interesting foray back in. I tried.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Obviously.

It took Peter nearly a year after graduation to find Ivy.

She had left home, and her mother wouldn't speak up as to where she was. After some tracking and talking to Matt and Nadia, the young man finally found the girl. She was living with a boy. After finding Ivy, it took another month or so for Peter to get up the courage to call.

"Hello?"

Peter almost hung up the phone in that moment. Instead, he spoke. "Ivy," he said with a dry mouth. "It's Peter."

There was a minute of silence, and the boy wasn't sure whether he had been hung up on or not. "Peter?" she finally said softly.

"Yeah. I was just…oh…" Peter wasn't entirely sure why he was calling. He did. He wanted to see the baby. _Jason's baby_. But how did he say that. "I was just wondering if you wanted to do lunch one day?"

More silence. If she said yes, would the whole time together have awkward moments like this? Peter didn't know what he wanted to happen. "Yeah, sure," Ivy said softly. "I'd like that."

"Alright. Does Friday work alright?"

"Yeah."

They organized where they would meet and at what time, and hung up with soft goodbyes. It took Peter a couple minutes to realize what he had done just then, and with a sigh, he fell back into an armchair. His mother came into the room, looking at her son curiously. "Are you okay, Peter?" she sounded worried. She always sounded worried about her son recently.

"Fine, mother."

Claire studied the boy. "School is out, Peter. You should be glad. First year of college under your belt." She smiled, trying to get her son to do the same.

"Yeah, it's great," Peter said softly.

"Peter-"

But Peter had gotten up from his seat, and without another word and walked out of the room. Claire heard him going up the stairs and the door to his room shutting.

Friday came quicker than Peter had expected it to, and before he knew it, he was sitting in a little sandwich shop waiting for Ivy. Half of him didn't want her to show up. It would make life much easier. But the cry of a baby alerted him that she was there; Peter wasn't sure how he knew that it was Ivy, but he did.

He looked up as the girl sat down across from him, cradling the baby in her arms. Ivy looked good, she had lost all her baby weight, and the one way that Peter knew he wasn't staring at the same girl from high school was by the bags under Ivy's eyes.

"Hey," she said softly.

"Hey," Peter replied. He tried his hardest to look at Ivy, but he couldn't keep his eyes from slipping to the baby in her arms.

Ivy noticed quickly. She picked up the baby's arm and waved it slightly. "Jason, meet Uncle Peter."

Peter swallowed back a sigh, instead letting a small curve of a smile find its way to his features. The baby stared up at him with wide eyes…the same exact shade that Jason's had been. Raising his head to look at Ivy, Peter felt himself trying to hold back tears. "He's beautiful," the boy managed to say. "How old now?"

"Five months," Ivy's voice was soft in its usual way, but not as coy as it had been in high school. It sounded more mature. Of course, they had all grown up. "My mom kicked me out, I moved in with a friend."

"Ah," Peter nodded. "Well…it's good you have somewhere to stay."

"He's very kind." They sat in silence for a moment before the waiter came over to take their orders. Peter wasn't sure he would be able to stomach the salad he had ordered, and Ivy didn't look too keen on eating either. "So, Peter…" Ivy held the baby close to her chest. "How have you been?"

"Ah, fine, I suppose. Berkely is a good place, I guess I'm enjoying it."

"That's nice to hear…" the girl sighed softly, rocking slightly on her seat. "Have you…you know…found anyone?"

A dreaded question. How did Peter explain that he couldn't move on? He knew he had turned a couple heads at school, but no one interested him in the slightest. "No." He figured this was a simple answer; surely his tone conveyed more than that though.

"I'm…I'm sorry…" holding the baby in one arm, Ivy tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "He loved you, you know."

Peter stared for a moment, he was sure he was about to burst into tears right then. An open wound was an open wound, no matter how much time had passed and would ever pass. "I know," he said thickly. It was all he could manage.

"Do you ever wonder how much different things could be?"

Silently, Peter cursed to himself. Motherhood had definitely matured Ivy massively. She was much more perceptive than she had ever been. "It's done," Peter said softly. "I try not to think about it too much anymore." That was a straight out lie, and surely Ivy would see right through it. No one was thick enough to believe the boy's words.

"Like," Ivy pressed, almost like she was ignoring her former classmate's lie. "Would he have helped me? With the baby…with…everything?" the girl sighed, playing with a piece of stray hair. The baby seemed to have fallen asleep on his mother's shoulder. "He never loved me, I know this at least. But I can't imagine him running from…"

"Jason was a runner," Peter rested his elbows on the table and his head in his hands. "He would run from anything. And when runners have nowhere else to run, they…give up." The words weren't new to him, he thought them over and over, whenever there was silence, at night when he was trying to sleep…but he wasn't sure he had said them out loud.

"Did he run from you?"

"He didn't stop until the end."

"He died in your arms, Peter."

"I am aware of this," he wasn't sure how much more of this he couldn't handle. Looking up at Ivy again, Peter cleared his dry throat. "Ivy, I don't want to talk about this," he finally said softly.

"You're not the only one who hurts, Peter."

"I can't talk about this, Ivy." Peter said, a bit more firmly.

She stared at him for a moment, rubbing her baby's back. "You're running too, aren't you, Peter?" Again, showing an element of perception that she had never shown before. At least, not that Peter had ever seen. At this point, Peter couldn't even speak. He just shook his head. "Why did you call me, Peter?"

"I wanted to see you." The boy said softly. "I…I wanted to see the baby," he choked out. "You shouldn't be alone through this, Ivy."

The baby let out a soft gurgle. Ivy looked up, tears in her eyes. "Uncle Peter?" she asked in a hushed voice. It wasn't her calling him that; it was a question. _Would he be there in the baby's life_?

"If you let me."

With a slight smile, Ivy cradled baby Jason for a moment before getting up and walking over to Peter, placing the baby in his arms. He looked at the baby for a moment, watching it sleeping peacefully.

Suddenly, his eyelids fluttered and opened, looking up at Peter with those eyes. With a gurgle, the baby reached his hand up.

Peter took it gently, and let a new smile onto his features.


End file.
